When Tsuda Itsuo returned to France in the early 1970s, he wanted to build a bridge between East and West, to introduce this culture so different from his own to what he himself had discovered through his research on ‘ki’: ways to awaken sensitivity and rediscover inner freedom. He saw in Aikidō, which he practised with Ueshiba Morihei sensei, and Katsugen Undō, which he discovered with Noguchi sensei, concrete tools for working in this direction. In order to pass on these practices, he wanted ‘[his] dojo to be a dojo and not a sports club with a boss and its regulars, so as not to disturb the sincerity of the practitioners.’ (Tsuda I., Heart of Pure Sky, Le Courrier du Livre). He therefore brought his students together in a place exclusively dedicated to these two practices, which operates on an associative basis, independently and self-managed. This is how Katsugen Kai was created in Paris in 1971.

In the early 1980s, his student Régis Soavi moved to Toulouse and, with his master’s consent, opened his first dojo at 10 Rue Dalmatie. This was the first dojo of the Itsuo Tsuda School. The appearance of the place, which housed various professional activities, was not particularly aesthetic – next to Matabiau train station, a courtyard with a garage, a shed and, at the back, a small house – but there was ‘something’ about it…

Everything had to be done. A small group that was already practising Aikidō and Katsugen Undō with Régis Soavi embarked on a huge project to transform an old mechanical workshop into a dojo. Bricklaying, installing windows and doors, reinforcement work, electrical work, painting… without money but with enthusiasm and determination, sometimes with unexpected help. A few months later, the tatami mats were laid and the first sessions took place. And since then, it has never stopped…

Today, almost forty years later, the Yuki Hō dojo is open every day: for Aikidō, every morning and evening twice a week, and for Katsugen Undō three times a week. The most experienced practitioners lead the daily sessions, and all members take care of the premises and activities in a spirit that combines traditional dojo practices with self-management. They welcome Régis Soavi sensei during the seminars he leads every two months, manage the accounts and administrative tasks, organise cleaning and major works… individually and collectively responsible for the premises and ‘their home’. What was once just a few tatami mats has now become a 100-square-metre space with a tokonoma in the centre housing a calligraphy by Tsuda Itsuo mounted on a kakemono.

There is also a floor upstairs with changing rooms, a kitchen and a dining area where you can share daily coffees and course meals, as well as many other facilities that now make it a dojo steeped in history, daily practice… and that special atmosphere that makes a space a dojo.

This place is not only a dojo in a courtyard with a magnificent umbrella pine tree, but also a collective of associations, including an alternative education centre, an Arno Stern painting-expression workshop and a cultural centre for sharing knowledge and skills. The members of the dojo, nourished by the practice and the vitality it allows them to rediscover, have worked on this joint project with the aim of continuing to share what they have discovered. Tsuda sensei used Aikidō and Katsugen Undō as ways to rediscover ‘one’s inner strength’; for many, Yuki Hō is a place that has offered and continues to offer this possibility. This is how it is possible to leave behind the disturbances of everyday life, to breathe, to rediscover ‘Tenshin, the heart of pure sky’, as Tsuda Itsuo used to say.